Can't beat my poker face.
Choir Wings, Meteos and Aqui all looked down upon the upcoming farmland from the top of a hill. There were apple trees as far as the eye could see, stretching all the way back to the horizon where larger mounds of soil and grass peeked over the skyline like the waves of the ocean. Choir could see a few large red barns in the distance, followed by a well-kept two story yellow house that was directly connected to the barns by a dirt trail. Around the barns and the house were the green sprouts of growing vegetables, not yet ready to harvest yet. There was a short white fence that ran along the entire boarder of the property, making clear what was public and what was property, but Choir Wings and Meteos jumped over the fence easily.
“Umm,” Choir began as they started walking between the trees around them. “I-it’s because my mom can get a little bit hungry when she’s stressed. Yeah. She’s the kind of pony that likes to snack a lot. That’s it. A-and usually she likes apples, so Sweet Apple Acres would be the perfect place for her to go.”
“I see.” Meteos mused, examining the bright leaves of the trees as they reflected the warm afternoon sun.
“Plus, we can ask Snapple if she’s seen any sign of my mom too.” Choir added.
Meteos nodded. “Gotcha.”
Choir bit his lip and tried to turn his face away from Meteos’ vision, sweat trickling down his forehead. ”What am I saying? It would be horrible if Snapple caught a glimpse of mom! I hope that she hasn’t seen anything! I don’t even wanna encounter her!”
The three traveled until they came across a clearing, showing off more of Sweet Apple Acres in its grandiose entirety.
“You see anything Aqui?” Choir whispered, bending down to eye level with the rabbit while searching the countryside.
Aqui shook her head and stared onward into the patch of greens that were all lined up in perfect rows beside the barns, almost ripe for the taking. There was a bit of drool coming from the side of her mouth.
“Don’t even think about it.” Choir stated, shocking Aqui out of her stupor. She gave an innocent smile and held her paws behind her back, nodding obediently. “Aqui, I really need your help here! Try to focus.”
Aqui saluted and shaded her eyes with her paws, squinting to try and focus her vision on any strange movement.
“That’s more like it. Thank you.”
Meteos walked up behind Choir and tapped the back of his neck. “Hey Choir.”
“What?”
“I think I saw some movement on the east side of the fields.” Meteos said, pointing at the area across barn.
“Are you sure that you didn’t see the Apple family?” Choir asked.
“It was up in the air, jumping from tree to tree, but it was so fast I couldn’t make it out.”
Choir clucked his tongue. “Darn. I think that might be her. Let’s get a move on and check it out.”
“Right behind ‘ya.”
Choir Wings led the way, taking route through the trees and heading towards the point Meteos mentioned. All the while, Choir Wings kept a careful eye on his surroundings, his worry making his heart pound against his chest.
”I really don’t want to get caught wandering around here,” Choir thought, twisting his neck around, searching. ”And I really, really don’t want to have to explain to one of the Apples what I’m doing here in the middle of their field with my best friend and a bunny rabbit if one of them does see me. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to lie my way through this one either, especially Applejack. But should I be trying to hide? Should I be taking cover or something instead of walking in the open like this? I don’t wanna look more suspicious than I already do!”
For a second, Choir Wings wanted to cry. ”I don’t know what to do! Maybe I should have taken the long way around through the rest of the orchard. But then again, the longer we take the more likely we’ll get caught! I could take off and get some real speed, but I would be leaving Meteos behind! Should we make a break for it?”
There was a loud whomp behind Choir and he jumped a mile high.
“Hey guys. What’s up?” a voice asked.
“Oh hey Prism.” Meteos greeted.
Choir landed on the ground and gathered enough of his bearings to respond, turning around to see who was talking to him. Aqui got up from Choir’s back after landing on it stomach first from his abrupt movement. “Prism! Don’t scare me like that!”
A young mare stood behind the duo. Her expression was unreadable as she looked at Choir with uncertain, light-golden eyes. Her coat positively glowed under the sunlight, bearing a very light blue shade underneath her. Her mane and tail were coloured by the six shades of the rainbow, separated in sections. The most amazing fact though was that her entire body was partially translucent, with anypony being able to vaguely see what was behind her through her coat, although a bit in a cyan hue. She blinked and the crystal wings on her back folded without much effort. Her cutie mark was distinctly a glass arrow shooting through a cloud, trailing a fine rainbow behind it. Suddenly a wide cheeky smile broke out on her face.
“Sorry, Choir.” she stated, holding her hoof to her chest in mock apology. “I’ll try and be more careful where I land. Maybe I’ll just land on top of you to make it easy for myself.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Choir dismissed, waving his hoof away from her. He glanced up to the sky for a second. “Where did you come from?”
Prism casually pointed to the sky. “Oh, I was just flying around Ponyville and the outskirts, bored out of my mind. Thank Celestia I found you guys. What are you three doing here?”
“We’re looking for Choir’s mom!” Meteos announced enthusiastically, much to Choir’s horror.
Prism raised an eyebrow. “Whhyyy are you looking for Fluttershy?”
“Ah, heh, you see,” Choir began, rolling his eyes and looking in any direction besides Prism’s. “It’s a funny story. Uh, my mom’s not really on one of her best days, and–”
“Estrus?” Prism immediately asked.
“No!” Choir exclaimed, grimacing. “By the stars, why do ponies always assume it’s estrus? No, it’s not estrus!”
Prism cast a curious glance towards Meteos. He shrugged. Snickering, Prism took a step towards Choir. “Are you sure it’s not estrus? It is spring, after all.”
“I swear to Celestia, it’s not estrus. I saw my mom take her pills today, I flippin’ swear it.”
“Ok,” Prism said, putting her hoof to her chin. “So you’re searching for your crazy mother in Sweet Apple Acres because…”
“S-she can get a little snack-y sometimes.” Choir finished, rubbing his foreleg timidly.
Prism’s mouth impishly curved up. She leaned towards Meteos and quietly said “It’s totally estrus.”
Choir groaned and abruptly turned around, walking away from the two. Little did he know, Aqui was laughing to herself silently on his back, barely able to control herself.
Meteos and Prism Arrow rushed quickly to meet up with Choir as he stormed off, Prism reassuring that she was just kidding and it was all a joke. Choir grumbled to himself.
“So are you gonna help me find my mom, or are you just following us to bother me more?”
“Yeah, I’ll help you,” Prism said, shrugging. “Celestia knows there’s nothing else better to do around here.”
“Isn’t there track and field practice after school?” Meteos asked.
“It’s only 2 o’clock. We got off early, remember? I still have time to spare. And besides,” Prism egged on, leaning towards Choir as he sunk his head low. “I need to help you guys find Fluttershy before a poor, defenceless stallion gets ravaged!”
Choir was utterly steaming as Prism chortled in the back of the group. ”And I can’t believe how close to the truth she actually is.”
Soon enough the group got to the main road. After timidly peeking from the brush before the path and checking both sides, they all jumped the fence and sprinted to the other side, diving into the green and brown landscape once again. The lack of ponies in Sweet Apple Acres had Choir worried. There was no way that the four of them could prance on through the place without being spotted through hundreds and hundreds of apple trees, sticking out like a flamingo in the mountains. His luck wasn’t that good. Right?
Choir was getting a sinking feeling. He had an odd premonition that there was something out of place, something that could change everything he had planned thus far. Something didn’t feel right. “Hey Meteos?”
“Yes Choir?”
“Reality check. It’s early spring right?”
“Yeah.” Meteos said, not thinking any different. Prism raised an eyebrow.
“So if it’s spring,” Choir continued with a shaky voice. “why haven’t any of the apples bloomed yet?”
Meteos, Prism and Aqui all looked up above them to see the green leaves of the trees sway softly in the wind, bare of any fruit.
“Oh yeah. You’re right. I guess it’s too early for them to have actually grown in.” Meteos commented.
Suddenly Choir broke into a sprint, not caring that he might get caught.
“Hey! Wait!” Prism yelled behind him. Choir could barely hear her as the moving air whistled in his ears, his thoughts shooting a mile a minute while Aqui hung on to his mane for her life.
“Oh shoot oh shoot oh shoot!” he exasperated, looking wildly every direction for any sign of his mother. “Mom came all this way here for food but she won’t find any! She might take her anger out on the trees, or the barns, or even worse, the Apple family!”
He reached a clearing at the top of a tiny slope, looking down on an acre of land. His chest heaving, he scanned the background for any hints of movement. His two friends finally caught up to him, Meteos worse off than Prism. Aqui lightly hit Choir on the head while Prism shot him a dirty look.
“What was that all about?” Prism demanded to know.
“Sorry. I should have explained. My mom’s going to freak out once she realizes there isn’t a single apple to be found in a farm that specifically specializes in apples.”
“Freak out? What do you mean, freak out?” Prism asked. “How freaked out could she get over not getting apples?”
“Oh, pretty freaked out.” Choir muttered to himself before turning to Prism. “When you were flying above Sweet Apple Acres, did you spot anything that looked like my mom?”
Prism let her eyes wander up to the sky. “Now that you mention it–”
“Oh hey look it’s Applejack.” Meteos quickly pointed out, interrupting Prism and grabbing Choir Wings by the tail, pulling him back quickly.
“What?” Choir Wings exclaimed, his voice cracking as his wide-eyes searched for the aforementioned pony.
“Howdy kids!”
Off to Choir’s right, an orange earth pony was running between the tall standing trunks toward the party of four. Her leg muscles were toned and strong, her body in tip-top shape with a packed stomach and a stout neck. An adventurous grin was plastered on her muzzle while her emerald eyes gleamed with the joy of freedom. If one looked close enough, they might be able to make out fine, dark circles under her eyes, as well as the tiny limp she had in her right back leg. Dirt and mud matted her coat in some places, and her mane and tail were drawn up in ponytails at the end of their hair strands by two deep red elastics. Her famous brown Stetson was atop her head with her ears poking out of each side and the ground seemed to shake as her hooves hit the surface with every stride.
Choir felt himself go pale. “We’re doomed.”
Applejack slid to a halt in front of the party, spraying motes of dirt onto the teenagers. They all took a few moments to cough it out of their systems, Meteos sneezing several times.
Prism shook herself out of the frenzy the fastest, shutting her eyes a moment before finding her voice. “Hello, miss Applejack.” she greeted, her voice a smidge higher than before.
“What are ya’ll doin’ up here in th’ middle of th’ farm?” Applejack asked curiously, no malice intent in her voice.
Prism opened her mouth to respond just before Choir smoothly slid himself to the front of attention, blocking Applejack’s view of Prism while Prism gave a startled glare at his sudden movement. “We’re j-just looking for a runaway bird – I-I-I mean, flyaway bird. She was at our place under my mom’s care as a request b-by the Manehatten Zoo, but she kinda, sorta, flew away while we weren’t looking. We’re trying to find her now. About this big, yellow plumage with a slightly pink tint in the feathers. Have you seen her?”
Applejack raised a single eyebrow, her lips a fine neutral line, turning her head away slightly from the group.
Perspiration dripped off of Choir’s brow. “She’s not taking it!”
“Actually, we were looking for Fl–”
“UBUS MIGRATORIUS, the technical name of the bird.” Choir butted in, shoving his hoof right into Meteos’ open mouth unceremoniously. “It really likes apples, so we thought that it might come here and try and find some. We didn’t realize though that it’s too early in spring for the apples to have grown in yet. In fact, we just figured it out a minute or two ago.”
Applejack eyed Choir suspiciously.
“Come on, let that pass! I didn’t do anything wrong there. That wasn’t a lie.” Choir thought to himself, smiling weakly at his speaker.
“Actually, there are some apples that are indeed done growin’.” Applejack finally said. Choir let out a sigh of relief before sucking in a sharp breath, realizing what she just said.
“Wait, what? There are apples here?”
“Yes indeed, in fact there are.” Applejack stated a bit proudly. “We here at Sweet Apple Acres don’ force our crops to grow faster than th’ market demands, but some apples just grow faster than others. It’s ah force of nature, y’know.”
“Would you mind pointing us towards where those apples might be?” Choir asked sheepishly.
“Ah can do better than that, ah can show ‘ya where they are.”
Choir’s cheeks were sore with all the smiling he was doing. “Oh goody.”
“We would love you to show us where your special apples are, Miss Applejack.” Prism expressed sweetly, catching Choir off guard. He stared at her in horror and annoyance, wishing that he had got the first word first.
“Follow me!” Applejack called to the four before she started on a brisk pace west, barely giving the others time to catch up with her. All five of them walked in relative silence through the woodland expanse, time seemingly lost as the sun above them was occasionally blocked by the tall plants around them. Choir was almost relaxed that his lead didn’t go dry like he thought it would and at least they would get to some assortment of apples, but it didn’t calm him for the new problem that arose.
“Oh, I hope my mom’s not there anymore.” Choir said to himself, staring at the ground all clammy. “Or at least I hope she keeps out of sight long enough for me to somehow dismiss Applejack. If Applejack sees her I don’t know what I’ll do!”
“Psst! Choir!” Prism whispered from behind. Choir looked back and saw Prism look directly at him, not happy. “Why won’t you tell Applejack the truth?”
“I don’t want anypony to know more than they need to!” Choir answered quietly. “The less they know, the better. I need to keep this under wraps. Very hush hush.”
Prism looked skeptical. “But why?”
“Because this is kinda personal! My mom is in deep trouble and it would mean the end of her reputation if what has happened to her gets out to the public!”
The crystal Pegasus was bewildered. “What? It’s that bad?”
“Yeah.” “It’s that bad.” Choir thought solemnly.
“So, how’s Snapple?” Meteos asked, breaking the partial silence and the conversation between Prism and Choir.
“Snap Apple’s doin’ just fine, thank you for askin’.” Applejack stated. “She’s gotten a little lazy with her chores, but her school’s doin’ pretty fine.”
“That sounds good.” Meteos responded.
A few more minutes passed as the ponies plus one passenger made the trek to the grown apple trees. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the five got to location.
“And here we are. The final stop at Sweet Apple Acres, these are the early bird apples, the apples that appear just before Applebucking Season.” Applejack said, looking at the ponies behind her. She wondered why they looked so put off instead of radiating with utter awe and amazement.
“Do your apples always look like they’ve been gutted?” Meteos asked bluntly, pointing at the apple trees behind Applejack. Applejack turned around with a frown. What she saw next brought back horrific memories, and she paled.
“No… No, not again!” she cried, falling to her flank.
The scene before them was an absolute apple massacre. Fallen apples were all over the ground, deflated and mummified as if they had been there for a century, not able to return to the dirt fast enough. Their colours were drained and shaded, with red gala apples becoming maroon and golden delicious evolving into a sickening brown. The trees were void of any fruits, and the small, growing apples that were on the trees seemed to have the juices sucked out of them too. Applejack let a single tear trail over her visage and the four stared on at what used to be an acre filled with fresh life. Choir spotted Aqui from the corner of his eye shaking an angry fist at the field of dead apples. He could feel her anger seething from her being. Even though she was a rabbit, she understood that no garden should have been demolished so violently and carelessly!
“What am I looking at?” Meteos questioned out loud, his eyes almost going cross with confusion.
Choir fell to the ground and landed on his backside, his ears folding back as a sorrowful frown formed on his face. Now he really felt like he was going to cry. “It’s all over. We weren’t fast enough. We couldn’t catch mom before she could cause any damage! And now, Applejack is going to connect the pieces and figure out that mom did this and blame us for not keeping her in check and press charges and we’ll lose the cottage and –”
Applejack bend down, gritting her teeth in frustration with a single hoof curved upward inches away from the bottom of her chin. “Darn it. Darn it all to Tartarus! Them fruitbats got it again!”
Choir was knocked out of his line of thought. “What?”
“Ah’ve seen damage like this many times before.” Applejack stated before getting up and approaching the no mare’s zone. The four friends looked at each other before reluctantly following the farm pony in front. Applejack picked up an apple and examined it from the side. Sure enough, there were two tiny bite marks in the skin of the apple, small enough to be unnoticeable from a first glance but big enough to look like an apple anomaly. “It’s been a long, long time.”
“What has been a long time, Miss Applejack?” Prism asked respectfully.
“Them fruitbats haven’t attacked my farm in ages. It’s been 22 years since ah’ve seen the last of their troubles, and the last time ah had mah friends to help me out of th’ worst of it.” Applejack explained, putting the apple back down, trying to resist crushing it with a stomp in anger. “Ah thought we fixed th’ initial problem together, along with all the extra cargo that came with them critters. We gave them their own little piece of Sweet Apple Acres separate from the main bushels, and they seemed content f’ so long. How could ah have been so foalish?”
Choir’s eyes lit up, seeing an opportunity. “Well, we have been having a bit of trouble with the fruit bats lately…”
“Ya’ have?” Applejack asked, hope in her gaze that Choir might have a solution for her, or at least a hint on how to prevent further massacres from occurring.
“I just have to feed her belief a little more! A few more lies won’t hurt a thing.” “Yeah. My mom and I always check up on the fruit bats just to see how they’re doing every spring time. But the past couple of years they’ve been a bit… restless to say the least. I mean, they didn’t seem like they would go as far as to ditching their mating grounds to invade your farm and eat for themselves, but they were pretty agitated to us. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them, but they hadn’t done anything drastic thus far.”
“Until now.” Meteos finished with a grim scowl. Aqui nodded, folding her paws.
“But why would they do such a thing?” Prism asked, concern painted all over her face.
Choir shrugged and turned to face Prism. “I have no idea. Maybe they were planning this for a while. Maybe they were just waiting for the right opportunity to strike. From what we’ve tried, it’s impossible to tell.”
Choir couldn’t help but smile a little while Applejack couldn’t see his face. “It’s working! It’s completely working! I just have to keep going with the momentum we have and we’ll be in the clear! Applejack won’t know a thing!”
“Why, of all the low-down, nasty, good-fer-nuthin’ things they could have done…” Applejack trailed off, suddenly in thought. Her gaze trailed to the far east, over a hill of apples on the other side of the farm. “Ah bet that they’re still there, sleeping off the weight they ate!”
Choir gulped, trying to think of the appropriate response. “Well, they probably are. It’s not like they can fly off and find another home all of the sudden or sink off to a hidey hole. They’re still probably full, and they can barely fly with that weight.”
“Ah’m gonna go over there and give them a piece of mah mind!” Applejack suddenly announced, fury fueling motivation.
Prism gave a panicked look. “Are you sure that’s such a good idea, Miss Applejack? Shouldn’t you wait and get a little bit of help to deal with this?”
Applejack did a double take, then stared straight at Prism. “Ah… Ah think you’re right. Ah remember th’ last time I went off alone doin’ something too big for me.”
Applejack paused, then visibly perked up.
“Ok kids! Ah’m gonna quickly run and get Fluttershy to help me with them critters. Could you three go and quickly get the princess? Ah think ah might need ah third head to help me out here.”
It was Meteos’ turn to grimace. “Aww. Do we have to?”
“What kind of a question is that?” Choir asked distastefully. “Of course we’ll get the princess for you, Applejack. Anypony else?”
Applejack shook her head. “Nope! Don’ need no one else! Unless this somethin’ turns into somethin’ big, but ah think th’ three of us can handle a few little fruit bats. Thank ya’ll kindly.”
“You’re very welcome, Miss Applejack.” Prism answered with a smile.
“E’ur mother is home, right?” Applejack asked Choir.
“Uh, she should be,” Choir lied. Applejack raised an eyebrow. “I mean, she definitely should, but I can’t be certain she’s there right now. She might have left after I left to go search for the, uh, escaped animal.”
“Al…Alrighty then.” Applejack drawled, turning her head to the side a bit. “You kids best get goin’. Imma go an’ get Fluttershy. After Ah’ll see what ah can do to help you find that bird of yours.”
Choir looked left and right, as if he was checking that he was still in Sweet Apple Acres. “Um, really?”
“Why, of course! It’s only helpful if friends help each other, ya’ll get me?”
Choir’s poker face went into effect again. “Oh great. Now I feel even more like a dirtbag abusing Applejack’s trust like this.” Aqui hopped once on Choir’s back. “Guess we’ll get going now.” he said, turning around to start towards the main road.
Applejack began to trot away as well. “Come back quick, ya’ll hear?”
“Yeah!” Choir called after her, waving.
“We will, Miss Applejack.” Prism enounciated.
“See ‘ya!” Meteos said.
Applejack quickly disappeared in the thick of the trees. Choir walked off in a different direction with Prism and Meteos in toe, Aqui having a curious expression on her face as she stared at the back of Choir’s head. Choir had a thought.
”Aw cookie crumbs. We need to hurry this up. My flank is toast if Applejack reaches the cottage first and finds out that my mom’s gone before we get her and fix the darn problem! But at least...”
“Finally, she’s gone,” Choir pointed out, leading forward back towards the general area of the barn. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Before Applejack realizes the full-frontal onslaught of dishonesty you served?” Meteos helpfully inquired. Prism’s jaw dropped.
“Yeah... Before that...”
Prism stared unbelieving at Choir. “You mean that the fruit bats didn’t attack Sweet Apple Acres?”
Choir was caught off guard. “Well, I mean to say, it’s not like they didn’t attack Sweet Apple Acres or anything, but they certainly weren’t acting as odd as I was making them to be. I mean, they were just fine, but I had to throw Applejack off of us so we could escape.”
Prism nodded. “Are we actually going to Ponyville?”
“Yeah. My mom wasn’t here anyways, so the next likely place she’ll head next is Ponyville.”
“How do we know that she isn’t here? We haven’t explored all of Sweet Apple Acres. She could be anywhere where we haven’t looked.”
“Ah heh, trust me. She’s not here. She was looking for one thing and one thing only, and she didn’t find it. Well, not enough of it, anyways. She’ll be looking for more, and the only other place out here is Ponyville, so that’s where we’re headed.”
Prism raised an eyebrow, gears turning when suddenly Meteos cut in front of her and leaned towards Choir. “Wait. Are we actually going to get the princess for Applejack?”
“Not if I can help it.” Choir stated.
Meteos seemed to sigh in relief then slow down to take up his spot in the back again. Prism looked at him for two seconds and rolled her eyes before bringing her thoughts back to their leader in front of them.
”I’ll get to the bottom of this eventually.” Prism concluded, eyeing Choir and putting her trust in her friend above everything else.
And so, Choir Wings, Meteos, Prism Arrow and Aqui made their way back to the dirt path leading up to Sweet Apple Acres and turned in the direction of the main road. Once they got out of the farm and started walking towards the crop of thatched houses in the distance, Choir finally felt as if part of a huge weight was let off his back.
“Oh sweet Celestia, those poor bats! I’ve just sent their worst nightmare after them! I’ll have to apologize and make it up for them as soon as I get mom back!” Choir thought to himself, approaching Ponyville with a sense of purpose and unease.
Sorry this took so long. I really had to think about this. Long chapter for sure, but most of it is dialogue, and I dunno if that's healthy for the story. I don't want this to be just talking heads or anything. Also, because it's dialogue, I, well, I suck at writing dialogue, and as a result I had to re-write many parts of this chapter a few times just to get it right. I also axed the ending and changed it into something different, as I realized that I had wrote Applejack out of character. Don't get me wrong, she detects that Choir's lying to her, it's just that she has no proof that he is, and his story is solid enough to be true.
This may or may not be completely edited. I'm editing this on the go, but I just wanted to release it already and get it done and over with. 
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Name Count:
Choir: 87
Meteos: 35
Prism: 49
Aqui: 16
EDIT: Chapter restored. Sorry for accidentally overwriting it.
Stats
Page generated in 0.022 seconds
Total duration
550 users online
1,111,182 hits today, 2,782,760 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
lowercase second i.
Same with
also, who is who's kid?
5783468
Noted. I'll fix all instances in the morning. Thanks. Had no idea that was the proper grammar to use.
And you'll find out who's who in due time.
Great chapter.
kid it would be better just to tell the truth
And so the search for Flutterbat continues...
Very good tale so far. Enjoying the character Choir Wings, hope to see more of his friends personality, too. Congrats again, and keep up the good work
Welp, Choir's dug his own grave. Nice knowing you, kid. Of course, if he confesses fast enough, he may survive. May. In them meantime, the town's apple supply certainly won't.
Choir,
You done goofed in perfect foal folly stile. 
"TWILIGHT!" "CHOIR!!"
And when Applejack makes up two plus two:
Choir appears to have contracted a rather serious case of "Idiot Kid Syndrome".
This can only end with the death of countless fruit bats, and Applejack going "Dear Celestia, what have I done" once the truth is reveled.